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Expansion of the "Tracing an Abandoned Infant's Ancestry" section
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== Tracing An Abandoned Infant's Ancestry == | == Tracing An Abandoned Infant's Ancestry == | ||
This discussion is comprised of two parts: (1) What to do when an ancestor's birth or baptism record is not found in the records of the town of post-birth residence; and (2) What to do when an ancestor's birth or baptism record is found (which most often is not the town of post-birth residence).<br> | |||
'''1. What to do when an ancestor's birth or baptism record is not found in the records of the town of post-birth residence''' | |||
Similarly, other records should be consulted, such as notarial records ( | As you trace ancestral lines back into earlier times, you might research the records of the vital events in an ancestor's later life (his or her own confirmation, marriage, death and burial) as well as the records of the vital events of other persons whose vital records mention your ancestor's service as a sponsor (godparent) or his or her service as witness to the other person's birth, baptism, death or burial. Yet, as you attempt to locate the birth record for your ancestor, you do not find it in the records of births and baptisms in the town. What do you do? | ||
Normally, in such a circumstance you would do as you in any event should probably always do in researching an ancestor: try to find all records that pertain to him or her. In many cases, the earliest record mentioning an ancestor newly arrived in a town may well mention the ancestor's place of origin. However, in the case of abandoned infants, this usually is not the case. But in most all cases of abandoned infants, if the placed child lived the remainder of his or her life in the town whose records you are researching, the ancestor's death record will be of preeminent importance, for it often will not only mention that he or she was born of a "padre ignoto" (unknown father) and "madre ignota" (unknown mother) but also mention the city or town of birth. | |||
Of course, that may well constitute the end of conventional page-by-page research in registers of births and baptisms and may portend extensive analysis of indexes that may have been or have yet to be prepared for births and baptisms of larger cities or towns located in other areas. An example here may be instructive. In the hamlet of Tasso in the community of Lumarzo to the east by northeast of Genova in the northern Italian province of Liguria, there lived a man named Lorenzo Casagrande. His wife was named Anastasia Casagrande, a name she received after having been abandoned and then adopted. (Remember that Italian women often retained and used their maiden surnames throughout their lives, as they often still do today; Casagrande happened to be her surname even prior to their marriage -- a Casagrande married a Casagrande.) Anastasia's 1891 death record (Registro degli Atti di Morte, Comune di Lumarzo, Provincia di Genova, Anno 1891, Parte I, Atto No. 56) states that on 18 Nov 1891 "in Lumarzo . . . , è morta Casagrande Anastasia di anni cinquantasei, massaia, residente in Lumarzo, nata in Genova, da padre ignoto, domiciliato in ____, e da madre ignota, domiciliata in ____" ("in Lumarzo . . . Casagrande Anastasia died, of fifty-six years of age, housewife, resident of Lumarzo, born in Genoa, father unknown, domiciled in ____, and mother unknown, domiciled in ____"). Her birth and baptism record, of course, does not appear in the records of the community of Lumarzo (she was born in the City of Genoa, 27 km / 17 mi distant). Because her record of birth and baptism, presumably recorded somewhere in Genoa in about 1834 or 1835, possibly but not necessarily will mention her given name as "Anastasia" and her surname as "Casagrande," you may or may not be able easily to find her record of birth and baptism. The record would not mention parents' names, of course (though that alone should pose no obstacle and in fact may be quite helpful). But because Genova city has more than sixty parish churches, you might not be able to search the records conveniently, or at all, and you might simply have to await the possibility that someday potential future indexing of such records might yield a result for you. | |||
However, other resources for your research may still be available to you (and they are mentioned in part 2 below). | |||
'''2. What to do when an ancestor's birth or baptism record is found (which most often is not the town of post-birth residence)''' | |||
When you do find the birth or baptism record of an ancestor who had been abandoned at birth (which most often is found not the town of post-birth residence but elsewhere), you still are faced with the task, if you choose, of attempting to trace the abandoned child's ancestry. Although the post-1865 records of birth of abandoned children usually are recorded in Parte II of the birth register for the year in which the birth occurred (as is the record of birth of Merico Scherzi shown above), usually the birth record of an abandoned child did not mention the name of either parent. If, however, the parents later acknowledged the child, a record of the acknowledgement might possibly be found in the Atti Diversi (Miscellaneous Acts). | |||
Similarly, both before and after unification (e.g., from the earliest to the latest times that records were kept in the town or city where you are conducting your research), you might still be able to learn the parentage of an abandoned child from other extant records. For example, when a young man would register for military service or exemption therefrom (at 21 years of age), the entry for him in the Lista di Leva (available at the Archivio di Stato for the province where the town of birth is located) might possibly reveal his parentage. | |||
Similarly, other records should be consulted, such as notarial records (notarii), and tax assessment and census records (catasti or estimi catastali). As to the notarial records, be cautious not to interpret the title "bastardelli notarili" (illegitimate notary records) to refer to records pertaining to illegitimate children. Such records merely constitute a chronological list of the atti (acts) prepared by a notary as a sort of index or set of abstracts he kept of his own work for his own reference, considered and titled "illegitimate" only because they did not constitute legal documents themselves. | |||
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== References == | == References == | ||